The Man On Mars!

[parallaxicality]

Just when you thought the Face was dead and buried...

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23433577-details/Crikey!%20There's%20a%20little%20green%20man%20on% 20Mars/article.do

The weirdest thing is how similar that picture is to this one:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Smalfut.jpg

COINCIDENCE?

[Fazor]

Funny, that second picture is the first thing I thought when I saw the first picture. And if *I* recognized the shape as such, I'm sure those who are fanatical about bigfoot and aliens and all that thought the same.

Anyway, aside from being so close in shape, I think it looks more like the shaded-side of a crack/fissure than anything actually laying/standing on the surface. But I'm no photoanylist, so what do I know?

[01101001]

Just for the sake of having original materials...

This is a NASA released panoramic image from Spirit, recent, at Home Plate: Press Release Images: Spirit :: 03-Jan-2008 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20080103a.html):
Spirit's West Valley Panorama (False Color)

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20080103a/1198865273_31824-1_Sol1369A_WestValley_L257F_th418.jpg (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20080103a.html)

NASA'S Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this westward view from atop a low plateau where Sprit spent the closing months of 2007.

After several months near the base of the plateau called "Home Plate" in the inner basin of the Columbia Hills range inside Gusev Crater, Spirit climbed onto the eastern edge of the plateau during the rover's 1,306th Martian day, or sol, (Sept. 5, 2007). It examined rocks and soils at several locations on the southern half of Home Plate during September and October. It was perched near the western edge of Home Plate when it used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to take the images used in this view on sols 1,366 through 1,369 (Nov. 6 through Nov. 9, 2007).

[...]

Browse Image (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20080103a/1198865273_31824-1_Sol1369A_WestValley_L257F_br.jpg) | Medium Image (420 kB) (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20080103a/1198865273_31824-1_Sol1369A_WestValley_L257F_br2.jpg) | Large (43.0 MB) (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20080103a/1198865273_31824-1_Sol1369A_WestValley_L257F.jpg)
Full-Res (NASA's Planetary Photojournal) (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10214)

The rock of interest is at far left of the panorama.

Spirit: All Raw Images:Panoramic Camera :: Sol 1367: 2P247720343EFFAWCCP2415L7M1 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/1367/2P247720343EFFAWCCP2415L7M1.JPG) is one of several images that show our little pareidolia man, AKA a rock, lower left.

All Spirit sol 1367 pancam images (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit_p1367.html)

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/1367/2P247720343EFFAWCCP2415L7M1-THM.JPG (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit_p1367.html)

[Hydro]

The BA's blog about this image (http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/01/21/speaking-of-dumb-mars-claims/).

[KaiYeves]

Astrological meanings of the planets are dumb, but I don't think I'd be wrong to say that Mars is the planet of fantasy.

[AndreasJ]

Funny, that second picture is the first thing I thought when I saw the first picture.
Perhaps oddly, my first thought was it's a little green woman. It kinda looks like it's wearing a long dress.

[TrAI]

The distortion caused by the projection used in the panoramic images increases the humanoid apperance of the object a little, and the coloring enhances the effect...

On the attached file the grayscale on the left is from one of the raw files(2P247720343EFFAWCCP2415L7M1.JPG (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/1367/2P247720343EFFAWCCP2415L7M1.JPG) IIRC), while the color part is from the panorama mentioned by 01101001 above(The image is enlarged 3 times in length and in height, so it is a bit fuzzy)

[Noclevername]

Hello, little man! MORBO WILL DESTROY YOU!

[Jim]

This actually made Anderson Cooper 360 last night. He showed the closeup, and a closeup of the closeup, but not the entire panorama. I guess that would have put things in too much perspective.

He then discussed it with his entertainment reporter. Cooper mentioned that it looked like Sasquatch. She said her bf is a Sasquatch-believer. They then pondered why Sasquatch is called Yeti in Asia. (They never resolved that one.)

Finally, Cooper said he'd just let us decide for ourselves what it really was.

And people say great journalism is dead.

[Fazor]

This actually made Anderson Cooper 360 last night. He showed the closeup, and a closeup of the closeup, but not the entire panorama. I guess that would have put things in too much perspective.


Much better perspective. You can see above when I just saw the cropped image with the zoomed in inset, I postulated that it was actually a crack or fissure. This came because I thought it was much larger than it actually is. When you see the panorama, you can see the size, shape, and "color" (though that's labled as a false-color image, is the origonal B&W?) all look strikingly (ha) the same as all the other debris in the area.

[Frog march]

more proof of life on mars
http://i30.tinypic.com/35cr5w1.jpg

[DyerWolf]

"NASA scientists have been puzzled by the peculiarly life-like image," declared the Times of London, despite the apparent fact that no one from NASA has had any comment.

The skeptical Web site BadAstronomy.com, however, scoffed, "Puhlllleeeeze. A man? It's a tiny rock only a few inches high. It's only a few feet from the rover!"

Link (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324800,00.html)

[Fazor]

Well, congradulations to Phil for getting mentioned on Fox News. And congradulations to a news agency to point out the rational but mundane explanation over the fantasy viewer-grabbing one (though the headline is obviously geared for the later).

[NEOWatcher]

Duplicate post, and probably better off to be posted in the existing thread anyway (http://www.bautforum.com/conspiracy-theories/69444-man-mars.html#post1157971) considering the BA reference.

Edit: I must be too quick... the other is already gone.

[NEOWatcher]

DyerWolf discovers (http://www.bautforum.com/off-topic-babbling/69471-man-seen-mars-badastronomy-skeptical-website.html)BadAstronomy reference in News Story (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324800,00.html).
:clap:

[DyerWolf]

Oops - ToSeeked... But then I never look at the Conspiracy Theories thread...

[Fazor]

Oops - ToSeeked... But then I never look at the Conspiracy Theories thread...

Many people don't. And since your thread, to me, was more about BA getting mentioned on FoxNews, and the other thread is more about the image itself, I didn't see a problem with having the two threads. Not that it's really a matter of what *I* think anyway. :)

[SeanF]

Psst, Fazor - "congratulations."

(Once could've been a typo. Twice means you're spelling it wrong. ;) )

Oh, and congrats to the BA! :D

[Fazor]

Psst, Fazor - "congratulations."

(Once could've been a typo. Twice means you're spelling it wrong. ;) )

Oh, and congrats to the BA! :D

Ooops, guess that's swing-and-miss #2 (see Why A Kite? (http://www.bautforum.com/off-topic-babbling/69436-why-kite.html) ) That's what happens when I try to actually spell instead of saying " 'Gratz! " Or "Congrats!" like I normally do ;)

[idav]

I'm pretty sure I was playing WoW with that guy last night...the dude lagged something awful.

[NEOWatcher]

Oops - ToSeeked... But then I never look at the Conspiracy Theories thread...
Sooo... NASA not investigating seeing sasquatch on Mars can be interpreted as an overt operation? :lol:

Anyway, I do agree that BA in the story is something else, although there's not a whole heck of a lot in the story about it.

[Disinfo Agent]

This article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/23/scimars123.xml) has the magnified and the non-magnified pictures side by side.

If you ask me, what this shows is the dangers of trying to squeeze too much information out of one's data, in this case by magnifying a photo beyond its resolution (sorry if this is not the proper technical term). The normal picture doesn't give me any doubt: it's clearly a rock.

[NEOWatcher]

This actually made Anderson Cooper 360 last night.
Video here (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/01/23/cooper.shot.tuesday.cnn).
It could be "the rock".
We got a movie cliche thread...how about a news cliche...space story has ST theme background.

[01101001]

When you see the panorama, you can see the size, shape, and "color" (though that's labled as a false-color image, is the origonal B&W?) [...]

Naturally, originals are grayscale. But, they had different filters placed before them, so they captured some color information that can be extracted and displayed.

I see 4 images including the rock (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit_p1367.html) with labels L7, R1, L5, L2. A Pancam spec (http://www.ominous-valve.com/pancam.html) says those are:
L7 Left 430 nm high pass (ultraviolet/blue)
R1 Right 430 nm high-pass (ultraviolet/blue)
L5 Left 530 nm (green)
L2 Left 750 nm (near infrared/red)

The press-release panoramas (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20080103a.html) were released as 3 versions, false-color, approximately-true-color, and blue-red-stereo.

Nice comparo, TrAI, of the original and the morphed, manipulated false-color version. To make the 180-degree panorama from many stitched-together images, the original one-armed-legless-humanoid-rock appears to have been skewed about 20 degrees right (making it more erect) and shortened about 10%, and artificially colored, and smoothed some by averaging. That's why thinking people just enjoy the pretty press-release panoramas for the big-picture delights they are, and don't use them to make scientific conclusions about specific minute details.

[Jim]

Threads merged.

[Lookout]

I can't believe stuff like this gets attention and people worked up. I mean it has to be one or two inches tall for crying out loud. . I bet right now I could go out in my yard, take a picture, and if I look closely I could find a leaf or some feature that looks like a person. just silly stuff.

[toejam]

You guys are slow. That's who made Kai's CD player. Ask her on the silly sentence thread on f&g:-


http://www.bautforum.com/fun-n-games/68411-leave-random-silly-sentence-4.html#post1158128


#105 (permalink) Yesterday, 09:54 PM
KaiYeves
Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Currently on assignment on planet shown in avatar photo
Posts: 4,987



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My CD player is from Mars.
__________________
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Towards the future, protecting the past.

[DyerWolf]

I can't believe stuff like this gets attention and people worked up. I mean it has to be one or two inches tall for crying out loud. . I bet right now I could go out in my yard, take a picture, and if I look closely I could find a leaf or some feature that looks like a person. just silly stuff.

Yes, but I've never seen any movies where Earthlings faced invasion from aliens from your back yard either...

I used to work with a guy who seriously believed there were Ancient Civilizations on Mars that he could learn from through the process of "FAR-SEEING." The credulous never cease to amaze.

[Big Brother Dunk]

Perhaps oddly, my first thought was it's a little green woman. It kinda looks like it's wearing a long dress.
Well we know that can't be. Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars.:lol:

[Gillianren]

Ooops, guess that's swing-and-miss #2 (see Why A Kite? (http://www.bautforum.com/off-topic-babbling/69436-why-kite.html) ) That's what happens when I try to actually spell instead of saying " 'Gratz! " Or "Congrats!" like I normally do ;)

For what it's worth, that was one of the words I had to look up for years; what finally did it for me was realizing that the shortened version is "congrats," not "congrads."

[Fazor]

For what it's worth, that was one of the words I had to look up for years; what finally did it for me was realizing that the shortened version is "congrats," not "congrads."

Nice way to remember it, but the flaw is that's using logic...something I'm oft incapable of ;) (okay, so I consider myself to be fairly logical....but not usually before I've had my morning coffee, which I completely skipped today).

[Fazor]

Ooops, shotgun post...I should probably pause and make sure my brain's done chugg'n before I hit the post button but...

...wrt "congradulations", I kinda knew it was wrong when I typed it, I just didn't really care to correct it (sorry!). But it felt wrong when I was typing it. Which is why I'm bothering to say that.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Where when you spell/mistype a word, you know because your finger movement didn't "feel" right, more than you do because you recognize the error in the text. In reality, it's your brain recognizing that your fingers didn't make the right pattern for the right word, but it's kinda weird to think of it as your fingers feeling that you spelled something wrong. The weird part is I can oft "feel" that I spelled something wrong, even when I go back and don't know the correct spelling.

Anyway kinda a rambling tangent...hope it made some sibilance of sense.

[toejam]

Ooops, shotgun post...I should probably pause and make sure my brain's done chugg'n before I hit the post button but...

...wrt "congradulations", I kinda knew it was wrong when I typed it, I just didn't really care to correct it (sorry!). But it felt wrong when I was typing it. Which is why I'm bothering to say that.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Where when you spell/mistype a word, you know because your finger movement didn't "feel" right, more than you do because you recognize the error in the text. In reality, it's your brain recognizing that your fingers didn't make the right pattern for the right word, but it's kinda weird to think of it as your fingers feeling that you spelled something wrong. The weird part is I can oft "feel" that I spelled something wrong, even when I go back and don't know the correct spelling.

Anyway kinda a rambling tangent...hope it made some sibilance of sense.

Yes, it whispered sibilantly. And incidentally incited envy: I type with two index fingers only, usually. Mavis Beacon hates me.

[KaiYeves]

Just for fun, could somebody make an overlay of the two pictures like the Vader/Afgan Girl one?

[sarongsong]

(psst---are you texting from school?) :)

[Fazor]

Yes, it whispered sibilantly. And incidentally incited envy: I type with two index fingers only, usually. Mavis Beacon hates me.

Hah, yeah I'm blaming that one on spell check. "Semblance" was the target word there. ;)

[KaiYeves]

(psst---are you texting from school?)
Me? No, I'm home now.

[Donnie B.]

"A sibilance of sense"... is that one of those collective phrases, like "a gaggle of geese"? If not... I like it.

"I used to hold to some strange ideas, until my friend whispered a sibilance of sense in my ear."

[Halcyon Dayz]

The FOX report is probably the reason I have trouble accessing the Bad Astronomers blog. :(

[RalofTyr]

Oh great, now every UFO enthusist is going to have a field day.

[Damburger]

Why does a pretty rock get a load of coverage and the actual science being done by Mars rovers gets comparatively little? The discovery of recently flowing water is surely more interesting than the discovery of a rock that looks like a garden gnome?

[Ross PK81]

Seems obvious to me that it's just a rock. I don't see why people get so worked up.

If it is a person, then they like holding their arm out while they're walking, they wear a dress, and their legs are a lot wider compared to the rest of their body (look at how the light shines on the dress where the leg is).

[Ross PK81]

Why does a pretty rock get a load of coverage and the actual science being done by Mars rovers gets comparatively little? The discovery of recently flowing water is surely more interesting than the discovery of a rock that looks like a garden gnome?

I couldn't agree more. It's just a reflection of the majority of our 'pop idol' watching society.

[KaiYeves]

Why does a pretty rock get a load of coverage and the actual science being done by Mars rovers gets comparatively little?
Because people are both amazingly horrible and horribly amazing.

[01101001]

The BA Blog: Emily, Bigfoot, and awesomeness (http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/01/23/emily-bigfoot-and-awesomeness/) informs us that Emily Lakdawalla in the Planetary Society Weblog: Teeny little Bigfoot on Mars (http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001305/) takes on the little Mars rock that isn't bigfoot:

The story of a Sasquatch-shaped rock visible in a recent panorama from Spirit is getting a lot of play in the mainstream media, but fortunately, it's not being taken very seriously.

[Donnie B.]

Does anybody know how long it takes to switch filters and take a subsequent exposure with the pancam on the MER? Because if it's more than a few milliseconds, that's one stiff Martian. She doesn't move that extended arm a skinch over the four images.

ETA: Ah, I see that Emily made the same point even more strongly. The same feature was captured by the navcam three sols earlier. Very stiff indeed.

[suntrack2]

wow, great image, a statue, or clay sculpture, or a rock design, or some one waiting on the stone! interesting image, really amazing and surprising.

:)

[Fazor]

Does anybody know how long it takes to switch filters and take a subsequent exposure with the pancam on the MER? Because if it's more than a few milliseconds, that's one stiff Martian. She doesn't move that extended arm a skinch over the four images.

ETA: Ah, I see that Emily made the same point even more strongly. The same feature was captured by the navcam three sols earlier. Very stiff indeed.

The problem is that the people who "find" this stuff and make a big deal out of it don't care to research any deeper than looking at photos they find on the internet. They don't bother to learn the process of obtaining those photos. They don't bother to research whether the photos are original or altered (in this case, false-colored and skewed to sew together the panorama). They don't bother to find references to give depth, size, relative positions, etc. All they care about is finding something that "looks like" something they're expecting to see. They think that constitutes as research.

There's multiple problems there--like this case, where the rock is only a few inches big (but admittedly, who says aliens can't be a few inches tall?), but when unskewed it "looks like" nothing more than a rock. And then you have the rest of the details like the time of the multiple exposures.

I won't even get into Pareidolia (coincidentally, Phil's site is the first one google brings up if you search the phrase "seeing faces in random patterns"...I couldn't remember how to spell Pareidolia ;)), but as with faces, we're good at identifying humanoid figures that aren't really there.

[One Skunk Todd]

I notice in this (large) image:

http://www.planetary.org/image/A1366_9_West_Valley_half.jpg

that there are rover tracks (I think) right up to, and beyond the little rock. It looks like the rock is not much taller than the width of the track. I wonder if it's standing up like that simply because the rover ran over it.

[tdvance]

ah, NASA, as a practical joke, put a Michael Valentine Smith action figure in the probe, and it fell out! :)

[01101001]

[...] that there are rover tracks (I think)

I think not. This route map (http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=12580) (from Unmannedspaceflight topic Spirit Route Map (http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=44&st=585)) shows Spirit's location marked as sol 1363, left side of Home Plate.

The caption on the panorama indicates the left third features Tsiolkovski Ridge, marked far left on the route map. The sensational-but-boring stone lies between Spirit and the southern tip of the ridge. That would make the existing wheel tracks for that location out of image view, behind and left of the 180-degree panorama.

[One Skunk Todd]

I think not. This route map (http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=12580) (from Unmannedspaceflight topic Spirit Route Map (http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=44&st=585)) shows Spirit's location marked as sol 1363, left side of Home Plate.

The caption on the panorama indicates the left third features Tsiolkovski Ridge, marked far left on the route map. The sensational-but-boring stone lies between Spirit and the southern tip of the ridge. That would make the existing wheel tracks for that location out of image view, behind and left of the 180-degree panorama.

Yeah, you must be right. I can't imagine the rover would navigate over terrain llike that and there's only one "track" in the place I thought I saw one.

[KaiYeves]

This appeared in a news broadcast my friend watched at the workstation next to me in the library.
I have a few choice words about all of this media attention and no explanation of Pareidolia:
DRIVEL! ROT! MADNESS!

[publiusr]

I still say it's Lot's wife ;)

[Noclevername]

I thik it's a hoax, it's really a man in a rock suit!

[KaiYeves]

Get that bigfoot, he has my CD player!

[jumpjack]

Once upon a time (even 4 years ago!!), I found a very strange rock formation on mars:
http://www.bautforum.com/space-exploration/11232-strange-mars-object.html

This "little green woman" is just another example of how weird nature can be.

Anyway, I really would like to have a closer image of that rock, undoubtedly interesting!
Does it exist a Spirit route map which shows up which photos have been taken from each rover position?!?

[Assilyc]

While I don't believe what these pictures represent, I believe in the theory that there used to be intelligent life on Mars prior to life on Earth, is a possibility.

As for the plans to go to Mars, scientists are in doubt.
http://www.physorg.com/news121264015.html

Thanks for the interesting topic and pictures, I enjoyed it!

[HenrikOlsen]

Funny, where other people saw bigfoot in that picture, the one I immediately saw it as was this little lady (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Little_Mermaid-tourists.jpg).
Color even fits the little green woman. :)

[One Skunk Todd]

I was reminded of this thread after looking at another bigfoot thread in the Conspiracy Theories Forum and I noticed something I hadn't seen before or seen mentioned either. I don't think the dark "bigfoot shaped rock" that appears to stick up is actually a separate rock at all. Rather, I think it might be the newly exposed/unweathered/shadowed face of a larger rock that blends almost seamlessley into the background surface. I've attached a couple of images to try and point out what I mean.

Of course, seeing things that aren't really there is the whole point of this thread so I could be completely wrong. :)

[Donnie B.]

I was reminded of this thread after looking at another bigfoot thread in the Conspiracy Theories Forum and I noticed something I hadn't seen before or seen mentioned either. I don't think the dark "bigfoot shaped rock" that appears to stick up is actually a separate rock at all. Rather, I think it might be the newly exposed/unweathered/shadowed face of a larger rock that blends almost seamlessley into the background surface. I've attached a couple of images to try and point out what I mean.

Of course, seeing things that aren't really there is the whole point of this thread so I could be completely wrong. :)
I had the same impression too. However, I think I remember seeing a stereo pair that gave a 3D image of the scene, and that didn't seem to show the rock you outlined.

[jumpjack]

I had the same impression too. However, I think I remember seeing a stereo pair that gave a 3D image of the scene, and that didn't seem to show the rock you outlined.

Indeed, I remember it too: it IS actually a 3d rock big-foot shaped.... but still a rock. :)